Perfectionism
by gallifreyrising
Summary: Annie is about to start high school, but with a controlling mother, a father she never sees and far too much work to deal with, she starts losing control. She begins to worry about her weight, her clothes, her studies, her family and panics. Eventually, she stumbles across a drug that is supposed to help her keep control. Adderall. But will it be enough?


**A/N- This is my first Community fic. I intend it to follow Annie through High School and how she became "Annie Aderall"**

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Annie hated the 28th of August. Every year, it ran the same way. All the schools in her area would start the following day, the 29th and she would have to deal with tests and assignments and her mother. To make matters worse, she was leaving her middle school and starting high school. Annie hated change, routines and lists were more her style. She looked out of the window and sighed. Her mother had made her stay at home all summer to study for next year and read all twenty of the books on the summer reading list, even though it had clearly said to choose two or three. Not that Annie minded reading, Annie loved to read, but she would have liked to spend some time outside or at the swimming pool with other people. To be honest, there weren't other people she could hang out with. Her friend Ellie, the only friend her mother had approved of, had moved to Wisconsin because her grandmother was dying and was going to give them the house. Annie hadn't liked Ellie all that much recently. Her mother approved of her because she was always neat and clean wearing dresses and matching shoes and never swore or said anything rude. She always did her homework on time and was a perfect student. But, behind Ellie's perfectly neat black hair and grey eyes was absolutely nothing. She had no personality. Annie had begun to turn to other options, hoping to make a friend before term began. Troy Barnes lived down the street and was extremely cute but he had gone to a different middle school and was always surrounded by at least three other boys and numerous girls. The Cooper twins lived across from the Edison household but her mother didn't want her to talk to them because apparently they had something wrong with them. It wasn't like she could talk to Anthony, he had a huge group of friends that their mother approved of and he was always off out with them.

Annie tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and scrutinized her outfit for the following day. A navy blue blazer, a green and blue striped skirt with a white shirt and navy flats. It matched and that was all Annie cared about. She liked looking neat and she liked wearing skirts, even though most of the girls in her year wore jeans and shorts. Annie wasn't allowed to wear shorts, but she did have a couple of pairs of jeans. Looking around nervously, Annie walked over to shut her bedroom door, her brown hair falling into her eyes. She crossed the room to the cupboard, carefully lifting out the piles of clothes before pulling out a pair of pale blue shorts. She'd saved her money and taken the opportunity to slip into the clothing department and buy them when her mother asked her to go and buy the groceries for her. Annie pushed her chair against the door before changing out of her black skirt and tights and into the blue shorts. She walked over to the mirror and gasped. She was fat. Horrendously fat. She hadn't noticed it before, her legs were always covered with tights or pyjamas. Her legs were huge, they were monstrously big. Annie felt her eyes fill up with tears. How could she be so stupid? Of course she couldn't wear shorts. Her mother was right, she must have said no to the shorts because she was trying to hint to Annie that she was fat. A silent tear rolled down her face and Annie wiped her eyes and glared at her reflection. "I will be skinny." She declared to herself quietly. "I swear I will be skinny."

Annie had just changed out of the shorts and back into her original outfit when her brother Anthony barged in, his light brown hair covering his eyes. He shook his hair out of his face and grinned at her. "Anthony! What have I told you about knocking?" Annie complained. Anthony stuck his tongue out at her. "Mum says it's time for dinner."  
Annie bit her lip. "Anthony, I'm not hungry." Anthony frowned, tilting his head to one side, clearly confused. "Annie, we have cottage pie. You love cottage pie." The eleven year old crossed his arms and furrowed his brow comically. "You're scared about high school tomorrow aren't you?" Annie shook her head. "No, I'm looking forward to it." She lied, smiling brightly. Anthony smiled back, easily believing her. "Cool." He ran down the stairs and into the dining room. As soon as he reached the table their mother came out and began to scream at him. Annie took a deep breath and started to walk downstairs slowly. Her mother was giving Anthony a lecture on walking in the house and being polite. Annie felt sorry for Anthony, he hadn't caught on to the fact that behaving as politely as you can and doing all your work and pretending to be perfect was the way to go. Annie had always been good at observing things and her pretence had been going on since she started first grade. Anthony had always been slower at catching on and therefore got in a lot of trouble for doing things that normal kids did.

Their mother was furious by the time she sat down. She helped herself to some food and then handed the serving spoon to Annie. She put half of what she would usually have on her plate. Her mother didn't seem to notice and Anthony was too busy shoving food into his mouth. Annie was considering not eating the food but remembered what had happened when she was feeling ill last year and had only picked at her meal. Her mother had thrown the plate at the wall and sent Annie to her room for a month, only allowing her out for school, meals and toilet breaks. With every forkful, Annie felt more guilty about the food she was forcing into her mouth that would slowly make her fatter. After they had all finished, it was Anthony's turn to do the dishes so Annie was left alone with her mother. Her mother smiled at her. "Is all of your extra work done, Annie?" Annie bit her lip and glanced at the table. "I have one worksheet left, I promise I'll finish it tonight." Her mother rolled her eyes. "You are lazy, Annie! Lazy! I have given you less work this summer than you would get at school and you still have work unfinished. I expect all of the work to be handed to me, in a folder, completed, by tomorrow morning." Annie nodded and stood up.  
"Where do you think you're going?" Her mother asked, standing up as well. It was almost like a mirror. Annie stood with her hair falling in her face, twisting the fabric of her skirt in her hand, her face flushed with anger. Her mother's hair never fell in her face and was shorter than Annie's but the angry expression was identical.  
Annie looked up. "I, uh, I'm going to my room to continue my work and prepare for tomorrow." She inhaled sharply, hoping it was the right answer. Her mother frowned for a second. "Don't you want dessert?"  
Annie shook her head. "No, I'm too nervous to eat." She lied, faking a smile, before hurrying to her room.

When Annie reached her room she headed straight to her desk, wincing when she saw the pile of work she hadn't done. What her mother called a worksheet, was in fact a small booklet. She was assigned five a day, to keep her studying going throughout the summer. She had only done one today, so she had four left. It was seven in the evening now. They would take about thirty minutes to an hour each and she still had to reorganise her folders for all her classes. She opened the first booklet and began to work her way through the maths problems.

Three hours later, Annie had finished the worksheets. The maths and English ones had only taken her thirty minutes each but she had struggled on the history and geography. If she got any wrong, her mother would set her even more homework. Annie yawned and selected a pair of blue and white spotted pyjamas before heading to the shower to wash her hair.  
When she had changed into her pyjamas, she twisted her long hair into a towel on top of her head, tucking it back under itself. Annie squirted some mint toothpaste onto her toothbrush before meticulously brushing her teeth and rinsing her mouth with mouthwash that made her cheeks sting. She washed her face and tiptoed back to her room in case Anthony was asleep. When she was sitting back at her desk, she carefully moved the worksheets into a folder and began to check she had all the folders she needed for tomorrow. She made a list to carry with her that she could check if she ever thought she was missing anything.  
_Things In My Bag  
One spare paper folder  
Two notebooks  
A pencil case  
A spare pen  
A spare pencil  
Seven ring binders  
Purse  
Medicine kit (just in case)_

Satisfied that she had everything she needed, Annie zipped up her new rucksack that she had carefully chosen and researched two months before buying it. She placed it by her door along with her shoes for tomorrow. She reached for the second drawer on her desk and pulled out a tin. She took off the necklace she wore and unlocked it. The contents of the tin were tipped on the desk. Annie counted out her money and wrote it down in a small notebook at the bottom of the tin. She had saved exactly one hundred and seventy pounds. She had been given a pound a week in pocket money from the age of seven to twelve and it had increased to three pounds fifty when she turned thirteen. She had spent some of it, sure, but this was what she had left. Annie desperately wanted to buy a phone, a good one. Her mother said that when she turned sixteen, if she could afford a phone, she could buy one herself. Everyone going into her year already had a phone, except from a few of the kids who lived down Dellen Road, which was notorious for being a poor area. Dellen Road was near Greendale Community College, somewhere that her mother always said Annie would end up attending if she got anything less than perfect marks on any test ever. Annie only knew one person who had been to Greendale Community College, the man who owned the sweet shop by her new school, Greendale High. His name was George and he seemed normal to her, all he did was sell sweets. Sometimes she wondered how he had ended up at Greendale and why he was still stuck here. Annie couldn't wait to leave, she wanted to become successful and move to New York or California or somewhere, anywhere. Anywhere would be better than Greendale.

Annie went to shut her curtains, before noticing that there were still people in the street. She recognised Troy Barnes, somehow already wearing his high school sports jacket, but she didn't know who the other four were. There was a dark haired girl in denim shorts and a t shirt advertising a band called My Chemical something, a blonde boy wearing jeans and a red jacket and another boy wearing a leather jacket. A closer look at the boy in the leather jacket revealed his black hair had a green stripe in it. Annie's eyes widened. His parents had let him dye his hair like that? He couldn't be much older than her, she guessed about fifteen or sixteen maybe. Suddenly Troy Barnes looked up at her window. He smiled at her. Annie went bright red and shut the curtains immediately. She could hear her mother walking up the stairs so she switched off her light and scrambled into bed, worried but half excited for the next day.


End file.
